2015年2月17日 星期二

Watermelon of Taiwan

The 1935 map of Tamsui (here) has marked where watermelon were cultivated, for example, a patch near Tamsui Shalun Beach (where clubhouse 和樂園 was located). Planting was in the winter, in time for summer harvests. Most locals recall basketball-sized watermelon with dark green exterior and crimson red flesh. Usually slices are chilled on ice, and salt grains sprinkled onto them immediately before consumption. The slight saltiness in fact intensifies the sweetness. Simply heavenly, needless to say.

Large-scale farming of watermelon in Taiwan actually started in 1717, introduced by migrants from Hokkien, the latter at the invitation of the Ming-Cheng dynasty (1662-1683). The varieties have since increased in leaps and bounds. Some of them are shown below:

Source: http://book.tndais.gov.tw/Other/2013watermelon/speech1.pdf

Above: Taiwan watermelon by the decades: (A) 富光FuGuang and (B) 鳳山一號Feng-shan No 1 seedless watermelon, both of the 1960s; (C) 金蘭Golden Orchid, the first to win an All-America Selection Prize, and (D) 新小鳳New Little Phoenix both developed in the 1970s；(E) 特小鳳Special Little Phoenix and (F) 鳳光FengGuang, both of the 1980s；(G) 黑美人Black Beauty, (H) 秀玲HsiuLing, and (I) 黛安娜Diana all developed in the 1990s；and (J) 甜美人Sweet Beauty, in the 2000s.

The acreage of watermelon growth has increased from 1,500 before 1950 to a peak of 36,257 hectares in mid-1980, now down to 11,715 hectares, still quite sizable. And the cultivation fields have shifted from the initial mid-Taiwan, to southern, now to eastern Taiwan.

瓜子- some skills are needed to extract
the "meat" inside each seed

There are four categories of watermelon crops, (1) regular, (2) miniature, (3) seedless, and (4) seeded. Among them, (4) was grown specifically for seeds, from which the 瓜子 snack is made; unfortunately, this category has been wiped out by cheap products from China, it is no longer in production.

There is also no such thing as a pure watermelon vine. Watermelon is grown from twigs grafted onto roots of other vines such as 蒲瓜 (hulu), winter melon, 絲瓜 (loofah). and pumpkin. And the rumor that yellow-fleshed watermelon is the original strain
which was overwhelmed by the red-fleshed ones appears an urban legend.

Currently, the most popular regular-sized red-fleshed watermelon is 華寶HuaBao.

Little known factoid: The best-tasting watermelon is in a state of Shua (沙）（Taiwanese,
meaning sandiness) ripeness. Over-ripen watermelon has started to ferment
and the flesh would become disturbingly soggy.